Best fictional portrait of a desperate and struggling young writer that I've ever read. Heartbreaking, unforgettable.

I first read it years ago, couldn't forget it, hunted it down and reread the entire novel just weeks ago. Extraordinary portrait of a family and how they cope with the musician father's struggle with Multiple Sclerosis. Profoundly moving. I came away feeling I knew the family intimately and I loved them.

"Playing From Memory" is a deeply moving, compassionate novel about the power of marriage to survive under stress, a love story that tells of a musician's courageous battle against a degenerative illness and his wife's struggle to face the end of their life together. Ben Seidler, an intense, passionately committed violist, is at the height of his career as a member of the Casa Bella Quartet, one of the foremost string quartets in the nation. His gifts as a concert artist had always been intuitive, but love did not come so easily. It took determination to win the hand of his wife, Dory, who was reluctant to set aside her ambitions of becoming an artist. Their marriage is at once complex and ordinary, balancing the rigors of long rehearsal sessions against the daily round of family life with their two sons. Then suddenly the rhythm of their lives is shattered when Ben falls victim to multiple sclerosis. Stubbornly independent, Ben refuses to rely on others until necessity forces him to see that there are things beyond his control. Through a new closeness with his aging father, his older son, and, most importantly, Dory, he learns to accept help and to appreciate human frailty and affection. As Ben's health declines, Dory is forced to resume her career and compete in a world dominated by men, and to re-examine her feelings and commitment to her husband. As their lives change, so does their marriage, and Ben and Dory forge a new kind of love, a fierce love that sustains them through everything.

Advanced Reader's Copy of a novel to be published in February of 2015. Exquisite first novel about a boy whose childhood is overshadowed by the violent rape of the little girl he adores. Superb style, scope, depth. I was dazzled by the mind behind this novel.

Instant New York Times Bestseller An Entertainment Weekly 'Must List' Pick The last page is as satisfying as the first. Kathryn Stockett I really loved this book... I can't praise it enough.Anne Rice It's a book to read and reread, one that will only get better with time.Tom Franklin It was the summer everything changed.... My Sunshine Away unfolds in a Baton Rouge neighborhood best known for cookouts on sweltering summer afternoons, cauldrons of spicy crawfish, and passionate football fandom. But in the summer of 1989, when fifteen-year-old Lindy Simpsonfree spirit, track star, and belle of the blockexperiences a horrible crime late one evening near her home, it becomes apparent that this idyllic stretch of Southern suburbia has a dark side, too. In My Sunshine Away, M.O. Walsh brilliantly juxtaposes the enchantment of a charmed childhood with the gripping story of a violent crime, unraveling families, and consuming adolescent love. Acutely wise and deeply honest, it is an astonishing and page-turning debut about the meaning of family, the power of memory, and our ability to forgive. From the Hardcover edition.